A master of classic American street photography, Leon Levinstein (American, 1910–1988) is best known for his candid and unsentimental black-and-white figure studies made in New York City neighborhoods from Times Square and the Lower East Side to Coney Island. The exhibition Hipsters, Hustlers, and Handball Players: Leon Levinstein’s New York Photographs, 1950-1980, on view through October 17, drawn exclusively from the Met’s collection, features some 45 photographs that reflect Levinstein’s fearless approach to the medium. Levinstein’s graphic creativity—seen in raw, expressive gestures and seemingly monumental bodies—is balanced by an unusual compassion for his off-beat subjects from the demimonde. 

Image: Leon Levinstein (American, 1910–1988). Handball Players, Lower East Side, 1950s–60s. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Purchase, The Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation Gift, through Joyce and Robert Menschel, 1987 © Howard Greenberg Gallery